


Now I Fall

by amethyst-noir (Arbonne)



Series: Entropy [1]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Heavy Angst, Insanity, Minor Tony Stark/Stephen Strange, Sad Ending, Stephen Strange & Wong Friendship, at least Stephen gets some version of a happy end for himself, but for the rest of the world this is a tragedy, incarceration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:29:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21890509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arbonne/pseuds/amethyst-noir
Summary: "I have to go now. I can hear Tony and Donna calling me."(Stephen's fragile hold on sanity snaps for good and it falls to Wong to make sure that he's safe and can't hurt himself or others.)
Relationships: Stephen Strange & Wong, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Series: Entropy [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576870
Comments: 25
Kudos: 94





	Now I Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Well, in [The Way You Hold My Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20562473/chapters/48812138) I made a throwaway reference that insane sorcerers get incarcerated in Kamar-Taj before they can do too much damage. This prompted a lovely anon to send this ask:
> 
> _Prompt: just saw the little excerpt about how insane sorcerers get incarcerated in Kamar-Taj. Would you be able to write the tiniest snippet where Stephen loses it (maybe after a second fight with Dormammu) and Wong has to incarcerate him?_
> 
> This came out of it. Some parallel universe where things really went sideways. After I posted this I got two other asks so there will be a mini-series of ficlets that are not really connected but share the same premise. They will be posted eventually. First, I have to write them. So, please, mind the tags - this is truly not my usual angst with a happy or at least bittersweet ending. This is the bad timeline where Stephen fell in love with Tony but Endgame happened anyway. So basically canon, right? 😭

"Please, Wong, don't."

Stephen's voice was a broken whisper and it hurt Wong to hear his friend plead like this. Stephen Strange shouldn't beg, he should rage, he should scream, he should try to fight his way out of this, no matter how futile it turned out to be.

Instead, he was offering no resistance, willing following Wong's lead and just begging for mercy in a near silent whisper.

"Wong," he tried again and stumbled because speaking and walking at the same time were almost beyond him by now. "Please…"

The quiet desperation broke Wong's heart. Instead of fighting the inevitable as he'd always done before he staggered along under Wong's careful guidance and just begged for his freedom.

As much as Wong wanted to, he couldn't grant it. "I'm sorry, Stephen," he said, the first thing he'd aid to his friend since they started their last journey together. "I have to."

"I'll be good, I promise. I won't hurt you or anyone else again. Ever. Just please don't put me away."

Wong was tempted, he really was. But he knew that Stephen's insidious insanity would break through again sooner rather than later and then all the nice promises where forgotten in mindless fits of violence and random acts of magical destruction.

"I'm sorry. You know that there's no other way." Oh, how he hated those words by now.

Stephen took a moment to digest those words and they walked a few steps in silence. Then, in a very quiet tone he asked the question Wong had been dreading the whole time: "Will Tony be there? And Donna?"

Who the hell was Donna? Wong swallowed down the threatening tears. "Yes, they will," he promised. "They've been waiting for a long time."

Now Stephen was truly lost, his fraying hold on reality finally snapped. An hour ago he'd known what awaited him.

He carefully led Stephen down the brightly lit corridor towards the gateway room. "You can rest soon, my friend," he promised when Stephen stumbled once again. He put an arm around his waist to support him better and prayed that Stephen would stay docile for the next few minutes. He wanted to say goodbye to his best friend, not the insane lunatic who possessed him most of the time now.

He hesitated before the arch to the gateway room itself. "Stephen…"

Stephen put his head on Wong's shoulder and hid his face against Wong's neck. His bandaged right arm, broken when he last got violent a few hours ago, was pressed against Wong's stomach. "You're doing the right thing," he whispered. "I can't be here anymore, I know that."

His quiet resignation brought tears to Wong's eyes. Never before had a sorcerer fallen to insanity acted like Stephen was right now. Typical. "I don't want to lose you."

"I don't want to go. But I have to. You'll be safe from me now. And Tony is waiting for me. He's been waiting for such a long time already. Donna for even longer."

 _I don't want to be safe_ , Wong thought, _I want you back, healthy and sane, fighting to protect our reality on my side._

They both looked in the bright light in front of them. Wong saw nothing but brightness but Stephen truly smiled for the first time in too many years. "Tony," he whispered, already moving away from Wong. He let him go after a moment of hesitation. Why made it harder on himself?

Stephen turned around at the very last moment and embraced Wong. "Thank you for everything. You're the best friend I've ever head."

Wong gave up pretending that he wasn't crying. "Likewise, Stephen."

"Will you take care of them for me?"

"Of course."

"I have to go now. I can hear Tony and Donna calling me."

Wong squeezed the frail body in his arms one last time. He was still missing the feeling of the Cloak being there but Stephen had buried the trauma of losing it so deeply that he couldn't even remember it most of the time now. Maybe it would be waiting for him, along with Tony and this Donna person, whoever she might have been to Stephen. "Go," he forced himself to say. "They've waited long enough for you."

Stephen didn't hear him anymore. He'd already moved through the dimensional barrier to whatever his poor confused and deluded mind projected into the empty space. He couldn't harm anyone in there, not even himself.

Wong's half-formed plan to search for a cure and bring Stephen back died right there and then. It would be too cruel. Let him spend the rest of his days in the happy delusion that he was with the people he'd loved and lost.

"Damn you all," he whispered, cursing himself and all the others who had pushed and pushed and pushed and ignored the warning signs for far too long. It was on him that Earth had lost Stephen so soon. On him, on Mordo, the Ancient One, on Tony Stark for dying after Stephen fell in love with him. But mostly it was on Dormammu who couldn't leave Earth alone and finally shattered the fragile remains of Stephen's sanity for good.

"Goodbye, Stephen. I love you."

He stared into the Empty Dimension for a long time but there was nothing to see, of course. Finally he turned around to mourn in the privacy of his quarters. Tomorrow the search for Stephen's replacement would begin but tonight he was free to cry and rage against the unfairness of it all. He was determined to use the time well before he had to present his usual stoicism to his fellow sorcerers.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](https://amethyst-noir.tumblr.com/post/186961656946/prompt-just-saw-the-little-excerpt-about-how).


End file.
